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Whether it's a hurtful review, the struggles of perfecting Amazon and Facebook ads (and learning all about keywords and algorithms), or just what feels like an endless scream into the void in an attempt to gather honest book reviews, being the author of a high-content book isn't easy.
I know authors are reading this who will agree with me and are struggling. I see you. I feel your pain. So, I'm here to share my top 5 frustrations with you—things I did wrong despite my years of experience, and things that are doing my head in a little bit! And if you're nodding and grinning and groaning as you read this, stick a like or a comment on this post and share it with other independently published authors who need to feel understood. Let me know what you hate the most about being an author, and what you did that you could have done differently to save yourself a headache!
Current Advice is Tailored to Low Content Books
There is so much out there (YouTube, I've noticed, is great for this) to help authors of low-content books do really well with Amazon KDP. For example, those who are creating AI-generated colouring books, activity/puzzle books, or journals. YouTubers who are actually making money at this are quick to advise us to run keyword research with expensive tools and to produce books that are trending or popular right now from those results.
Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only author in the world who watches this content and wants to scream, 'What about those of us who write a series?' I've been searching and can't find much out there to help authors of high-content books that are less than 12-months old. When you're writing a series, you're in it for the long run. You're not out to make a quick quid. Research, writing, and editing can take months to years, and if we only wrote what was popular when we did the keyword research, those trends would change before we hit publish.
I do agree keyword research is important, as is placing the book in the correct categories as it helps the right readers to find and enjoy your content. I also agree that checking your keywords after a few months and adjusting them is sometimes necessary. But, those keywords must be relevant to the book you are writing, and not simply included to get your book seen.
I recently commented on one YouTube video and asked what that person's advice would be to those of us writing high-content, a fantasy series for example. They replied to say, basically, do the same thing. Which, of course, doesn't work for us.
Honestly, if anyone out there wants to start a channel targeting high-content authors and helping us to navigate Amazon KDP and all the things I'm about to complain about below, I'd be your first subscriber.
2. AI - Love or Hate?
On the back of the above, I decided to check out lots of low-content books to see what authors are producing, what the reviews are like, how they are presenting them, and if there was any use of AI which I think Amazon KDP now makes you declare when you upload the title. Was I missing something—how were these authors managing to make money?
Until recently, I've avoided AI; to this day, I still have not attempted to write anything with it. It would take the fun out of writing for me as (despite what the title of this post suggests!) I do love sitting down to write my novels. Even more so if I can do it by hand for the therapy it provides and the ability to unplug.
But, I recently found that www.kittl.com (the site I use for design) has an AI tool, and curiosity got the better of me as I really wanted to include something visual in TO SEE A WORLD. I had an absolute blast playing with that to create artwork of my characters and the locations in my series, The Chronicles of Pandora.
Despite one reviewer recently calling this artwork 'soulless' (thanks!), I was so impressed with how well their AI tool took my descriptions and re-created what I had imagined on the page. Arriette Monroe was so beautiful, and the Recruit's underground lair was simply stunning. The above are a few of the results I got, which I included in a limited edition of the book itself (both formats) to share them with my readers for a bit of fun.
KDP did ask me if I had used AI at all to create my book, and it also asked me which platform I had used to create them. I was impressed that this is being policed in some way.
Then, curious to see if their black and white colouring images would look good, I spent a few days playing around to create 6 designs I instantly fell in love with that represented TO SEE A WORLD for my e-mail subscribers. I wanted these to be bold and beautiful, to be intricate to keep my readers busy, and for there to be no wasted white space or too many dark sections they couldn't colour. I also wanted the images to be correct and smooth, with no 'errors'.
From left to right, top to bottom, the images are:
The temple at Enzo, the Recruit's underground lair after the battle for Pandora's Box, the entrance to the lair before the orc invasion, Drakonta (the village against the mountain), Arriette and Tobias falling in love outside Casper's cabin, and Arriette in Mousique (colouring sheet).
During my research, I struggled to tell which books were AI-generated and which were hand-drawn by artists who wanted to share their illustrations. I didn't know if this was a good thing or not and suddenly, I found myself backing away and unable to trust the descriptions. I could see a few 'tells' where illustrations were unfinished or 'faulty' in some way, and I found the human-illustrated books to be far more personal. Also, there was a clear theme in their artwork, a style, and emotion.
So, overall, I can see the purpose of AI in the publishing industry, but in careful moderation.
3. High Demand, Low Competition Keywords
If you use keyword research tools like I do, or you have software to help you find categories and analyse competition, you may have noticed that despite the advice being to place your book in keywords that have a high demand (plenty of people searching for them) but low competition (not many books currently meeting that demand), most of the keywords and terms I entered are all over-saturated already.
Publisher Rocket is a tool I use, and I recently discovered a free ad-on for Chrome that shows you popular Amazon searches when you begin typing in the search bar. As a beginner, this is eye-opening and definitely helps you to decide what to enter in those 7 keyword boxes KDP allows. But actually learning what the numbers in the results mean requires study. The advice I have recently gathered (though this again was on a low content video) was to also include those keywords in the title and the description of the book. This wouldn't work with my novel TO SEE A WORLD as the title doesn't also include the keywords (but the description can). Amazon KDP like what is on the cover to be reflected in the title you enter and nothing additional.
Keywords again get confusing when you start to run Amazon or Facebook ads, and it's soul destroying to see that tons of people have clicked on a book and thought 'nah' and then walked away. Did I get it wrong, or is the book just not interesting enough? Then again, it's surely worse to have more people see the advert and avoid it. I did recently follow some influencer advice to set up Amazon ads, which had zero effect, so I went back to allowing them (and Facebook) to assist me initially based on the content itself—my book's listing, and my FB page's content and current followers. This seems to work better, and it then gathers the data you can use to tweak it yourself later down the line if you want. I wouldn't recommend attempting to manually enter keywords if you're new to advertising.
4. A+ Content Takes Ages to get Approved
If you haven't already done so, creating A+ content for your Kindle books on Amazon KDP is fun and a great way to share what's inside the book and some extra pictures and information. It spruces up the product page a little and looks professional. But, it can take up to 8 days for Amazon KDP to approve the content you submit, and if they reject it, it's then another 8 days before they will approve your amendments.
The above is a copy of my A+ content for TO SEE A WORLD, and the reasons some of my designs were initially rejected were as follows:
I stated the sequel was coming soon - Avoid any timelines or dates
I included a QR code to direct people to my website - Do not include a QR code
I mentioned I was an Amazon bestselling author - Do not refer to Amazon
I included a link to my website (a www. link) - Do not use external links
I do think A+ content is beneficial and it looks amazing, but my advice is to check and double-check and then triple-check that your content meets the standards, and avoid everything I did above. I assumed, having seen these things on existing content for other authors, that it would be acceptable. I was wrong, and this added maybe 2 weeks delay to getting this up and running. Something I won't do again.
Note, also, that you must upload these individually for each territory. You cannot just upload them once for all the different Amazon websites worldwide.
5. Gaining Honest Reviews
All an author wants is to hear what readers think of their work, even if it's not always the feedback we hope for. Feedback helps us to better meet the needs of our readers who are quite often experts in the genre. If you write in a niche category, listen to those comments because your readers are experienced.
Honest reviews can sometimes be cruel. I recently received the worst review I have ever had. Not going to lie... I cried a little. Then, I received a 1* review! But I picked myself up and read through the handfuls of positive reviews that far outweighed those few negatives, and it gave me the strength to carry on.
Simply asking nicely for a review doesn't seem to work anymore. I've put out a few posts on socials asking for readers to spend a minute or two to drop a review on Amazon. I've tried reaching out to reviewers or BookTok accounts I follow. I've sent letters, emails, and even had face-to-face conversations with people who have met me at events and promised to leave feedback. It rarely leads to a result. People are busy! I think it's quicker for readers to select from a 1-5 star rating on the final page of an e-book than to expect paperback readers to log in and comment before they move on. I'm guilty of this myself; I review far more e-books than physical ones, because I'm reminded to do so before I buy the next.
There are a few platforms out there to help authors gain legitimate reviews, and I tried one recently. At first I was impressed, but I quickly came to realise the types of reviews I received were not what I wanted or needed. Some were rather basic and generic, and though I hope they did read the book from cover-to-cover, it's so hard to tell when you haven't chatted with the person at an event or seen a sale of the book on your publisher's reports. So if you do opt to join one, please be sure it complies with Amazon's policies and that, if you're reading for somebody else, that you actually read the book before you post a review.
It's no secret that I keep a daily journal, and I make notes as I'm reading for others that I think the author might want to know. I make sure I fill it with positive and negatives, and if it's a low star rating, I am kind in the delivery. Cruel reviews are not acceptable no matter how terrible you think a book is, and I would not subject any author to this, because I know how it feels to be on the receiving end.
I made the mistake of not starting this process sooner. I did send e-copies to ARC reviewers but didn't really hear back for release day.
I'll stop complaining now, because I think positivity is far more important in this industry. These points are more helpful tips and things to avoid, to help you side-step the same frustrations I've been feeling. If you have any advice for me, or want to add your thoughts to these points, please feel welcome to get in touch at any time. I'd love to hear your input.
Rach x
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